Co-op Month Podcast Playlist

Headphones October is National Co-op Month in the United States! The annual celebration is an opportunity to lift up the values and impact of the cooperative community. To celebrate this year, our team at the CFAES Center for Cooperatives is sharing resources for learning about the co-op model. This focus is fitting given that Co-op Principle 5: Education, Training and Information highlights the importance of life-long learning across the global co-op community.

The cooperative community’s diversity and innovation create seemingly endless opportunities to learn about how member-owned enterprises are solving problems and “building back better” in their communities.

Whether you’re new to cooperatives or a seasoned co-op developer, you’ll find unique stories about the cooperative business model in the co-op podcast playlist below!

See us at the Small Farm Center Tuesday at the Farm Science Review

September 21 at 10:30 a.m. in the Small Farms Center at the Ohio Farm Science Review. The Small Farms Center is located at the west end of Equipment Avenue.

We will be sharing info about the Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience Online. This is a resource featuring innovative and exciting ag co-op career content that teachers can easily build into classroom learning during the 2021 school year and beyond. The open-access format also allows students to visit the website outside of class to learn from leaders in the agricultural industry.

With funding from the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation, The Hocking County Farm Bureau and Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) Center for Cooperatives partnered to create this online experience for high school students to discover and explore careers in agricultural cooperatives.

The virtual program is free and available to all educators and students, but was designed to speak the unique challenges students face in rural Appalachian counties.

If you are at the FSR on Tuesday morning, be sure to stop by to learn about the Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience Online and how it can be a first-step for your school ag program to explore forming a student-led cooperative.

For more information about the Farm Science Review, visit: https://fsr.osu.edu/home

 

 

Exploring Cooperative Leadership

Cooperatives, as member-owned and controlled enterprises, are led by a board of directors who are integral to the operation’s success. If you’re considering joining your co-op’s board of directors – or even if you have served as a director for many years – it is important to recognize the responsibilities inherent in board leadership.

Basic Responsibilities of Co-op Directors

A cooperative board of directors is generally responsible for the affairs of the co-op. For example, under Ohio’s cooperative business statute, “all of the authority of an association shall be exercised by or under the direction of the board.” In a cooperative, the board is generally elected from and by the membership, meaning that directors are also co-op members although some cooperatives may have non-member directors.

A specialist from the U.S. Department of Agriculture conceptualized the responsibilities of cooperative directors as “seven circles,” including:

  1. Representing members, including understanding members’ needs and assessing whether the cooperative is meeting those needs.
  2. Establishing policies that guide the operation of the co-op, including both long-range and specific policies.
  3. Hiring and supervising management, often with direct involvement in hiring and supervising top management such as a general manager or chief executive officer.
  4. Acquiring and preserving assets, including establishing policies relating to assets such as oversight and accounting systems as well as monitoring financial performance.
  5. Preserving cooperative character by ensuring the fundamental character of the enterprise follows co-op principles.
  6. Assessing the cooperative’s performance, including financial performance, but also performance related to fundamental objectives like member benefit.
  7. Informing members with a recognition that members are the owners of the cooperative and accurate and complete information helps ensure they make informed decisions.

As directors carry out these important functions, or delegate responsibility to the co-op’s officers and managers, they are expected to uphold basic legal standards because they are considered fiduciaries who have legal duties to the cooperative, the co-op’s members, and the co-op’s other directors. While the concept of fiduciary duties is broad, at the most basic these duties generally require that directors act in good faith, with the care that an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would exercise under similar circumstances, and in a manner they reasonably believe is in the best interests of the co-op. As two co-op attorneys summarized, these duties require that directors:

  • show up,
  • be prepared,
  • protect the board’s process,
  • disclose conflicts,
  • don’t compete with the cooperative, and
  • don’t breach confidentiality.

Exploring Board Leadership Opportunities  

If you are contemplating joining a co-op board, whether through the encouragement of a neighbor, an invitation from a colleague, or after exploring ways to give back to your community, you likely have multiple questions.

As we learned above, directors play a vital role in leading their cooperatives, taking on various legal duties and other responsibilities. As you explore the opportunity to serve on a co-op board, it is important to consider whether you can effectively uphold these duties and responsibilities.

The following questions, based on recommendations for individuals considering corporate board leadership from the American Bar Association’s Corporate Director’s Guidebook, may help as you think about the opportunity.

  • Do I have sufficient time to diligently perform the duties required of a director? For example, do I have scheduling conflicts with the board’s regular meeting schedule? Do I have sufficient scheduling flexibility to respond to unexpected needs?
  • Do I have skills and experiences that allow me to meaningfully participate as a board member?  Are there special skills I should develop to participate in board activities more fully?
  • Do I have a sufficient understanding of the cooperative’s business to be effective as a director? How can I further develop this understanding?
  • Do I have confidence in the cooperative’s current senior management and directors?
  • Do I have a compelling interest in engaging in board leadership?

The Importance of Co-op Principle 5: Education and Training in Co-op Governance

Co-op members exploring future board leadership, and directors who have led their board for many years, can benefit from ongoing education and skill-building. In fact, as cooperative directors face increasing public and legal scrutiny, there is an increasing awareness of the important role of ongoing education and training for directors. Two legal scholars explained, “Directors are now expected to have more than a passing understanding of financial statements, their fiduciary responsibilities to the cooperative, and other essential items.”[1]

Whether you prefer to learn through reading, in-person teaching, or connecting with peers, there are many resources for co-op members and directors to build their governance knowledge and skills. You can ask your co-op leadership what type of training programs they provide for directors, whether they are members of organizations that provide cooperative education, or whether they partner with co-op educators. You can also explore publicly available resources on your own. Below are a few great places to start!

Join the CFAES Center for Cooperatives and Mid America Cooperative Council for the online training, “Welcome to the Board” on Thursday, September 30 from 10a-12p Eastern time. The interactive training will introduce participants to the roles and responsibilities of cooperative directors and the crucial skills directors use in leading cooperatives. Registration for the training is available at https://go.osu.edu/maccwelcometotheboard.

Explore Co-op Mastery: Beyond Cooperatives 101 online at your own pace. The self-directed platform helps learners explore cooperative governance, taxation, finances, and more using videos, narrated presentations, infographics and more! Explore the platform at https://go.osu.edu/coopmastery

Read Navigating Your Legal Duties: A Guide for Agricultural Cooperative Directors from the National Agricultural Law Center. The guide includes five chapters and reviews topics like fiduciary duties, antitrust laws, securities issues, and risk management tools. Chapters are written to stand alone so readers who want to explore a single topic can skip to the chapter or section of interest. Use the self-assessment at the end of each chapter to explore how the concepts apply in your own cooperative.

 

References

Charles T. Autry & Roland F. Hall, American Bar Association Business Law Section, The Law of Cooperatives 60 (2009).

Corporate Laws Committee, American Bar Association Business Law Section, Corporate Director’s Guidebook 5-6 (6th ed. 2011).

James Baarda, U.S. Dep’t of Agric. Rural Bus. Coop. Serv. Cooperative Information Report 61, The Circle of Responsibilities for Co-op Boards 3-5 (2014).

Hannah Scott & Michael E. Traxinger, National Agricultural Law Center, Navigating Your Legal Duties: A Guide for Agricultural Cooperative Directors 11-26 (2021 https://nationalaglawcenter.org/center-publications/busorg/).

Michael W. Droke, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Cooperative Business Law A Practical Guide to the Special Laws Governing Cooperatives 57-28 (3d. ed. 2020).

Thane Joyal & Dave Swanson, Precautions and Protections: Summarizing legal responsibilities of cooperative boards, Cooperative Grocer (Mar. – Apr. 2011 https://www.grocer.coop/system/files/legacy_files/precautions.pdf)  

[1] Charles T. Autry & Roland F. Hall, American Bar Association Business Law Section, The Law of Cooperatives 60 (2009).

The Benefits of Building More Diverse Cooperative Boards

Over the course of the last year, many businesses and organizations have recognized their lack of diversity. Harvard Business Review reported that “in a fall 2020 analysis of the 3,000 largest publicly traded U.S. companies found that just 12.5% of board directors were from underrepresented ethnic and racial groups, up from 10% in 2015. The report also found that only 4% of directors were Black, while female directors held 21% of board seats.”

As directors, management, and employees address the lack of diversity on their board, the co-op community has developed more and more research about the benefits of board diversity. From individual cooperatives sharing their success with building diverse boards to development organizations researching the impact of diversity on cooperative boards, the response has led to more diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives hoping to create more representative cooperative boards.

The growing need for more diverse cooperative boards has led to new research analyzing issues, needs, and benefits to creating a diverse board. Below, I will explore recent research revealing the benefits of diversity on boards.

Better Understand and Represent the Co-op Community

Diverse boards bring together more backgrounds, experiences, and ages to engage in the  decision-making process. When directors better represent their member-owners, their decision-making can better reflect the cooperative members, emphasizing democratic member participation, the second cooperative principle. By bringing together directors with different geographic backgrounds, sexual orientations and genders,  and/or races or ethnicities, among many other characteristics, boards that foster diversity better represent their community and make better-informed decisions for the cooperative and its member-owners.

Oklahoma State University’s Dr. Phil Kinkel found in “The Need for Board Diversity in Agricultural Cooperatives” that board diversity can help a board “relate to its internal and external stakeholders.” For example, women are an important part of the employee teams at cooperatives and “female representation on the board gives those employees a greater sense of connection with the cooperative and improves the perception of a career path.” Board diversity allows cooperatives to understand and serve both their member-owners and employees.

Better Change Styles 

Another benefit of building a diverse board of directors is the advantage that the diversity of experiences and knowledge brings to change management. The unique perspectives that each director brings to the board room can help guide the cooperative through both low risk change and high risk change that may threaten the sustainability of the business.

Dr. Phil Kinkel has found that cooperative diversity led to better change management. In his study of gender diversity on agricultural boards, Kinkel stated, “[b]oards with greater gender and age diversity appear to make better decisions, particularly when dealing with strategic issues or organizational change.” This research pushes boards to think about how diversity of ideas and experiences can benefit the entire cooperative.

In a recent blog about the value of board diversity, Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business shared research findings indicating that by having more diverse human capital, companies can better navigate “disruptive change.” The study conducted in 2018 by Bernie, Bhagwat, and Yonkers found that the “aggregate skillset” and diverse experience on more diverse boards changed the outcome of more volatile changes in the company. By including individuals with a diversity of experiences, boards can lead better together through economic, business, and social change.

As recent research has shown, cooperatives have both a social interest and a business interest in building diverse, equitable, and inclusive boards and many cooperatives are approaching board recruitment and development with renewed focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion to build more representative and sustainable enterprises. Harkening back to the seven guiding cooperative principles, diverse boards better serve their members by staying true to the democratic foundations of cooperation.

 

For more inormation:

https://fisher.osu.edu/blogs/leadreadtoday/navigating-disruption-why-board-diversity-leads-better-outcomes

https://hbr.org/2021/03/you-say-you-want-a-more-diverse-board-heres-how-to-make-it-happen

https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/the-need-for-board-diversity-in-agricultural-cooperatives.html

Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience goes online thanks to Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation grant

The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) Center for Cooperatives has rolled out a new online platform for youth education about cooperatives and agricultural careers. Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience Online (YCLE Online) is the result of a collaboration between the Center for Cooperatives and the Hocking County Farm Bureau, who were awarded an Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation Youth Pathways Grant in 2019. The grant funds would provide Appalachian high school students an opportunity to discover and explore careers in agricultural cooperatives and build leadership skills in an immersive, in-person two-day experience. Students would visit Ohio State’s Columbus campus to experience college-style learning, discover educational and career paths in agriculture, connect with leaders and engage in hands-on leadership and team-building activities. The trip would also include tours of agricultural cooperative businesses in the state. When Covid-19 lockdowns made the in-person experience impossible, the Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience was transformed to a bigger, better and more impactful virtual experience!

 

The virtual experience website features innovative and exciting ag co-op career content that teachers can easily build into their classrooms to help inspire students to discover and explore careers in agricultural cooperatives. The virtual program materials target students in middle school through high school and can be incorporated into agriculture classrooms, 4-H or other youth activities, or accessed by individual students.

“I’m happy that we were able to collaborate with Ivory Harlow and the Hocking County Farm Bureau to move the YCLE to an online platform,” said Joy Bauman, Program Specialist for the CFAES Center for Cooperatives. “The Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation grant gives us the opportunity to reach even more students with cooperative education and information about agricultural careers.”

“The YCLE Online seeks to help youth see the many career paths available to them in Ohio’s food and agricultural sector, understand the opportunities for educational pathways to those careers, and begin building a network of leaders and educators to help them along those paths,” said Hannah Scott, Program Manager CFAES Center for Cooperatives.

Many will be the first generation in their family to pursue higher education. While the Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience Online aims to remove physical and psychological barriers to continuing education​, it also helps students to see that there are many careers and leadership roles in the agriculture industry that do not require post-secondary coursework.

The YCLE Online will be available broadly to any young person interested in exploring agricultural careers through the open access website where materials are housed. The project partners will also recruit teachers, youth agriculture advisors, and other educators to incorporate the learning materials into their classrooms and activities. The Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience will be provided free of charge because of the generosity of the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation.

The virtual experience is available at go.osu.edu/YCLE. Educators can incorporate the videos, hands-on activities, and learning materials from YCLE Online directly into their classrooms or youth activities. Through the generosity of the OFBF Youth Pathways grant, educators can both access the free online materials and request hard copy workbooks and supplies for hands-on activities at no cost while supplies last.

The Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience encourages students to discover and explore careers in agricultural cooperatives and support industries. The goal of the program is to ignite career ideas, reveal pathways, and inspire student action.

Participants will have virtual Co-op tours and hear from leaders at Heritage Cooperative, Nationwide Insurance, and Casa Nueva – a worker-owned restaurant and cantina, as well as farmer co-op leaders.

There are hands-on Activities in STEM with OSU experts including tomato grafting and fruit DNA extraction, career exploration activities, and leadership activities.  Additionally, there is opportunity for virtual tours of Ohio State’s CFAES Campuses and the Ohio State University South Centers.

The Youth Cooperative Leadership Experience program is available now at go.osu.edu/YCLE. Educators can both access the free online materials and request hard copy workbooks and supplies for hands-on activities at no cost while supplies last.  Ag teachers can learn about the program and visit with Center for Cooperatives staff at the trade show during the Ohio Agriculture Educators summer conference.

Counting Ohio’s Cooperatives: Mapping Cooperatives across the Buckeye State

Over the last year, team members with the CFAES Center for Cooperatives have collected, reviewed, and verified information from industry trade organizations, the Ohio Secretary of State, and other public sources to develop a census of almost 1,100 cooperative locations across the Buckeye state. From credit unions to food co-ops, Ohio is covered in new and established cooperatives that contribute to the state’s economy.  

In partnership with the CFAES Knowledge Exchange team at Ohio State, the data was built into an interactive map that will be available to the public. The Center is releasing a self-guided exploration of the cooperative economy that highlights the interactive map and the diversity of Ohio’s co-ops. The map will allow co-op leaders, community ownership advocates, policymakers, cooperative developers, and entrepreneurs to find cooperatives in their area and locate cooperative models to learn from as they develop new co-ops. The data will also create opportunities for the team at the Center for Cooperatives to conduct comparative historical analyses and other applied research on Ohio’s cooperative economy. 

Explore the map of Ohio’s Cooperatives here.

 

To build the cooperative database, Center staff gathered data from numerous public sources, including industry trade associations such as the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, the Ohio Credit Union League, and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, as well as federal and state sources including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Farm Credit Administration, and the Ohio Secretary of State, among others. Center staff verified each cooperative in the database by assessing whether the entity was mutually owned by multiple members, operated on a non-profit cooperative basis, or provided bulk purchasing on a cooperative basis. Center staff also verified whether each cooperative was still active, using public sources like websites, social media, and news articles.   

The project revealed the true diversity of cooperatives in Ohio. From breweries and laundries to financial services, agriculture, and housing, each cooperative plays an important role in the state’s cooperative community and economy.

Out of the 452 cooperatives headquartered in Ohio, 228 are credit unions. The figure below shows a breakdown of cooperatives headquartered in Ohio by sector. The 1,088 physical co-op locations included in the map of Ohio’s cooperatives include cooperatives headquartered in Ohio, branches of co-ops that are headquartered in Ohio, and branch locations in Ohio of co-ops not headquartered in Ohio. 

According to the National Cooperative Bank, of the largest 100 cooperatives in the U.S. in 2019, three were headquartered in Ohio, including United Producers, Inc. (#80) headquartered in Columbus, Heritage Cooperative (#83) headquartered in Delaware, and Buckeye Power, Inc. (#84) headquartered in Columbus. 

Cooperating for Connectivity: Cooperative Approaches to Rural Broadband

Almost one year ago, as we were still in the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic and the many changes the public health emergency created in our work, home, and social lives, I wrote an article highlighting the cooperative community’s attention to the lack of reliable broadband in rural America. In that article, “Broad Thinking: Why the co-op model could be a key to closing the broadband gap,” I highlighted the work of rural electric cooperatives who are expanding their services to include broadband. These same co-ops were vital to bringing electricity to rural Americans in the 1930’s. I also highlighted new, grassroots community groups who are pooling their resources and time to bring broadband access to their community, like the Southeast Ohio Broadband Cooperative in Washington County, Ohio.

Recently, the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Center for Cooperatives hosted a webinar with guests Mike Keyser, CEO of BARC Electric Cooperative, and David Brown, co-founder of Southeast Ohio Broadband Cooperative, who shared their experiences bringing connectivity to rural, Appalachian communities using cooperative approaches. Although the two are approaching broadband access using different infrastructure, at different scales, and with different histories, their mutual-ownership, cooperative model is similar. Brown shared, “The dedication of a cooperative to the community, rather than to making a profit and that representation of the membership in the decision-making process – those were all elements that led us to adopting a cooperative model.” Southeast Ohio Broadband Cooperative formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic after realizing that many community members could not effectively participate in remote schooling, work, and other opportunities and has since started providing broadband to members using a mixed-technology approach.

While BARC Electric Cooperative has a longer history – the co-op formed to provide electricity services in the 1930’s – and connects over 12,500 meters to the electric grid, the co-op model is also vital to their efforts to bring broadband services to their community.  Keyser shared, “We’re all about service to the membership, and as long as we’re recovering our cost of services, we don’t have shareholders that have to have a return [so] we can live with a longer payback on this investment…” The co-op has installed almost 800 miles of fiber in a project that will eventually bring broadband access to their entire customer-membership base.

To learn more about these cooperative approaches to building rural broadband access, you can watch a recording of the webinar, “Cooperating for Connectivity” here.

MEATing a Need – Resource kit available for those exploring meat processing business

By Joy Bauman

beef carcasses

A team of Ohio State business and meat science specialists have compiled a Meat Processing Business Tool Kit for people who are exploring the meat processing business. Designed as a decision-making aid for people exploring investing in or expanding a meat processing facility, this online tool kit can help entrepreneurs evaluate the business and navigate business planning. The Meat Processing Business Tool Kit is available in the Business section at the OSU South Centers webpage and at the OSU Extension Meat Science webpage.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers saw shortages of meat in large supermarkets caused by disruptions in large packing plant operations. “As a result, consumers started shopping at smaller, local meat shops, that didn’t have shortages of meat,” explained Lynn Knipe, PhD, associate professor of food science and technology at Ohio State who worked with the team to develop the meat processing business tool kit. “This, in turn, increased business for the smaller meat processors to a point that people who were used to taking animals to their local slaughterhouse, had to schedule their animals much farther out than normal,” Knipe said.

Knipe explained that entrepreneurial people who either raised livestock or had some past experience with slaughter or cutting of meat, have decided to consider opening their own meat businesses. Knipe and his colleague, Lyda Garcia, PhD, assistant professor of animal science began receiving more calls than usual, with people finding them either through their Extension Meat Science website or by referral from meat inspection people they had contacted.

Likewise, many of the same people were reaching out for guidance from the business development specialists at OSU South Centers and the specialists at the CFAES Center for Cooperatives, which is also based at the OSU South Centers. While gathering information to assist clients in summer 2020, the Center for Cooperatives team members reached out to OSU Extension meat science specialists Knipe and

Garcia. Soon, a working group was formed with team members from the CFAES Center for Cooperatives, the Small Business Development Center at OSU South Centers, the Extension Meat Science Program, and the OSU Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics.  Together, the group developed and compiled resources to help guide entrepreneurs interested in the meat processing business.

“It only made sense that we work together as Ohio State colleagues to better serve our clientele,” said Garcia. “Instead of individuals contacting one OSU source and getting a bit of information and then needing to contact another OSU source for more information, we can all point them toward this fantastic online resource that will help answer their questions and guide them in the decision-making process,” Garcia explained.

On the webpage housing the tool kit, users will find information to help get started, including understanding the capacity for such a business, maps of federal and state inspection facilities and auction sites, as well as livestock inventory. To aid in decision making regarding business models, there are samples of cooperative and corporate business models, with business planning templates, financial worksheets, and information about funding sources. Contacts are also listed for those using the tool kit and seeking additional assistance with their business planning.

“The materials lead entrepreneurs to investigate critical considerations during the planning process, including collecting livestock data, gathering financial information, financial modeling, and business planning. That means that the tools are adaptable and intended to be changed to the user’s unique circumstance,” said Ryan Kline, Cooperative Program Specialist for the CFAES Center for Cooperatives.

A business plan is helpful as a decision-making tool for entrepreneurs and it becomes a tool they can use when talking to potential lenders, investors, or future key employees. CFAES Center for Cooperatives program manager Hannah Scott explained, “In our experience, entrepreneurs don’t usually look forward to business planning, but many of them are already going through the business planning process mentally as they consider a new business or ways to expand their current operation. We encourage entrepreneurs to write down their plans – and to use tools and coaching that can help them approach the process in a systematic way without being overwhelming – because it can help them identify potential issues and consider topics they might not have before.”

“There is lots of assistance for entrepreneurs going through the business planning process, from templates like the ones in this tool kit to assistance from business development specialists like our team at the CFAES Center for Cooperatives or the OSU South Centers Business Development Network, which houses a multi-county Small Business Development Center (SBDC),” Scott said. The SBDC program is a nationwide network of business development specialists who provide no-cost business consulting for entrepreneurs. Readers can locate their nearest SBDC here.

“We hope that the tool will be intuitive as entrepreneurs move through the planning process,” Kline said. “When visiting the website, people will find a self-guided and self-paced exploration of Meat Processing that we hope will help anyone interested in starting a meat processing facility.”

To find the Meat Processing Business Tool Kit online, visit: southcenters.osu.edu/meat-processing-business-toolkit or meatsci.osu.edu/programs/meat-processing-business-toolkit.

Appalachia Cooperates Tours the Region’s Cooperative Economy

On January 27, the Appalachia Cooperates Initiative (ACI) hosted the “Exploring Appalachia’s Cooperative Economy” webinar. Our center manager, Hannah Scott, and cooperative program specialist Ryan Kline prepared a presentation on the region’s cooperative efforts. Together they explored the co-op model’s foundations, cooperatives as economic development agents, and collaborative efforts in Appalachia today during the webinar. According to the program organizers, the virtual event was a success, with the webinar having almost 100 attendees. That number does not include additional people who registered but could not attend and requested the recorded webinar.

Central Appalachia fosters a network of cooperatives as diverse as the people who call the region home. ACI is a learning network connecting cooperative, community, business, and economic developers and advocates in Central Appalachia interested in expanding cooperative efforts in the region. The CFAES Center for Cooperatives works with cooperators across the region to coordinate speakers and promote regional cooperative development.

Though you may not have been able to participate in the webinar, it is not too late! Because of increased interest, we have recorded the entire webinar for anyone interested in exploring cooperatives throughout Central Appalachia. You can contact the staff for a recording of the whole webinar!

For more information, or to learn more about what our Center offers, email us or check out our website.

Center for Co-ops Collaborating to Assess the Impact of COVID-19 on Ohio’s Ag Co-ops

The Center for Cooperatives in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) at The Ohio State University is collaborating with the Center for Economic Development in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University to understand the economic impacts of COVID-19 on the state’s agricultural co-ops and to estimate the economic contribution of cooperatives to Ohio’s economy. The project will gather data from public sources and interviews of agricultural co-op leaders.

Hannah Scott, Program Manager of the CFAES Center for Cooperatives, explained the goals for the project. “The COVID-19 public health emergency has had far-reaching impacts across so many aspects of our economy. We’re looking forward to better understanding how the state’s cooperatives have weathered the changes brought about by the pandemic — from temporary closures to supply chain shifts. At the same time, we’re collecting information to reliably estimate the economic contribution of co-ops to our state’s overall economy. Ohio is home to some of the largest co-ops in the country and while we know that co-ops are important, we do not currently have a reliable estimate of their economic impact.”

The project work is funded, in part, by a U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) University Center CARES Act Award received by the Center for Economic Development at Cleveland State University. Dr. Iryna Demko, Research Associate with the Center for Economic Development, shared that cooperatives play a unique role in the agri-food supply chain. “The purpose of the agricultural supply chain is the fast and efficient delivery of agricultural products from farmers to consumers. Each cooperative acts as an intermediary in the supply chain by connecting its members to wholesalers,” Demko said. “Cooperatives also purchase products and materials needed for their business to function. We want to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cooperatives’ supply chain and on their role in the supply chain.”

For more information, contact Hannah Scott, Program Manager of the CFAES Center for Cooperatives at Ohio State, at scott.1220@osu.edu.